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[Tutorial] How to Avoid Getting Scammed and/or Hacked

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I see it time and time again; Someone posts on the forums in a frantic state of mind because their account has hacked, or they were scammed. This guide is designed to help you understand just how hackers and scammers try to get access to your account, and what you can do to avoid it.

How to Avoid Getting HackedClick Here for additional information on how to avoid getting hacked.

It is much easier than you think for you to be tricked into giving someone your account information. There are several ways in which you might be tricked into giving away your account information.

Phishing

What is phishing? Phishing is the act of creating a website or service that has the intention of tricking users into revealing their account information in some way.

The most common way that someone will try to phish your account is by creating a fake RuneScape login site. For example, take a look at the following images: (Image 1Image 2)

Those are images of the RuneScape homepage and login screen, right? Wrong. Those are two pages from a phishing website I was able to find a link to (for obvious reasons I won't be revealing the link). They look pretty convincing, don't they? Heck, the login page even knows that I had recently failed to login to my account, and is asking me for a captcha!

From that fake login screen, the phishing website could read the information you type in and then do whatever it wants with it. You don't even need to click Login. The website can track your keystrokes, and steal your information without you ever even pressing Login.

So, how do you avoid this? Always check the URL. That is the one aspect of the website that phishers cannot copy perfectly. However, they will still try.

Yikes! They look pretty similar, don't they? To determine if a link is legitimate, look for "runescape.com/..." somewhere in the URL. If you don't find that exact text somewhere in the URL, it isn't the real RuneScape website.

One of the most common misconceptions is if you know what phishing is, you will be able to spot it. This is false. The truth is, if you aren't paying attention, anyone could click on a phishing link without realizing it. The only way to truly prevent being phished is by following the instructions listed above every time you type in your login information.

Downloading a Virus

This is much, much less common than some people make it out to be, but it does still occasionally happen. There are the things you need to remember when downloading anything RuneScape related.

You might download an "unwanted passenger".How does this work? Let's say for example that you find a link to OSBuddy on Yahoo! Answers. You click the link, and OSBuddy downloads and installs correctly. Everything is good because you are running OSBuddy without any problems, right?

Wrong. At the same time OSBuddy was being downloaded, so was an unwanted passenger: a virus! You would have no idea the virus was downloaded at the same as OSBuddy. Soon enough you're complaining about how TRiBot must have hacked you because it's the "only thing you've downloaded".

There is no such thing as a "hacked" TRiBot client.It isn't even possible to make a hacked TRiBot client, and if it were, why would the hackers allow you to download it for free? The only way you should ever download TRiBot is from the TRiBot website.

People are greedy.No one, not a SINGLE person, is going to give away a gold generator, dupe/hack guide, or any other way for you to make money. The primary reason for this is because they don't exist, but even if they did, they would not be released at all to the public, much less for free.

Moral of the story: Stay away from free money!

Giving Your Account to a Worker

While most of the workers here on TRiBot are honest people, we can't regulate every member that joins the community. Unfortunately, we do have the occasional dishonest account leveler, quester, etc, that are only trying to steal your account information. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can be devastating.

The solution to this problem is simple; When you are paying someone to do anything with your account, be certain that you are giving your account information to someone who is trustworthy. Read the following section for information on how to find trustworthy members.

Remember that it is almost always better to go with the trustworthy option rather than the cheap option.

How to Find Trustworthy Members

Finding trustworthy members can be a difficult task. The best way to go about it is thinking in terms of that everyone could be a scammer. The only people you can trust 100% on this website are @TRiLeZ and @Usa. No one else is 100% trustworthy, so don't treat them as such.

However, that doesn't mean that you should do business! Considering neither Usa nor TRiLeZ deal in the black market of TRiBot, you are going to need to learn how to gauge if someone can be trusted or not, which seems much more complicated than it is. Don't worry, the vast majority of users

Post CountA user's post count on TRiBot is usually a good indicator of the user's trustworthiness. As a user gets more involved with the community, it will be more and more important to them to remain part of the community. While a user with 5 posts might scam a user for 20m without thinking twice about it, a user with 500 posts will be far less likely to scam you for 20m because of the permanent ban they will then receive.

As a general rule of thumb, if a user has less than 50 quality posts (see below), the user should never be trusted.

Post QualityPost count isn't everything. If a user has 100 posts, but all (or most) of those posts are short posts that don't contribute anything to the community, that user is likely to not care about their account, and is more likely to scam you. The more the user seems to care about the community (posting to help users, etc), the higher chance that the user is going to be trustworthy. (This doesn't necessarily apply to bigger businesses. Refer to "Big Businesses" below for details).

Mods or Mod-Partnered ShopsThere's a reason why some black market shops advertise themselves as "mod partnered". All of the moderators on TRiBot can be trusted to not scam you. However, you still need to be careful! Many TRiBot mods do not know TRiLeZ personally, so you still need to avoid being careless when proceeding with a sale.

FeedbackLook at not only the amount of feedback, but the quality of the feedback. Obviously a user with more feedback is going to be more trustworthy, but only if that feedback is positive, but more importantly legitimate. Instead of only reading the feedback, also look at the users who left the feedback.

Are these users who have 1 post, and haven't been online since they created their account? Are these users who are generally active? Sometimes people create fake accounts and give themselves feedback to give the illusion of being trusted when they aren't. Always be on the lookout for this!

Large and Confirmed TransactionsSometimes scammers will carry out a number of small, legitimate transactions before, especially when buying/selling gold. After a couple of weeks or sometimes even more, once they've built up enough "Sold 5m, highly recommended!" or similar feedback, they will start looking far larger sales. The first large sale they get, they will scam.

Always make sure that the user you are trading with has completed sales of around the same value as your sale. If you notice that the person you are trading with has only done smaller transactions, ask them why. If they say it's because they are a new shop, say that's fine, but insist on using a middle-man.

Big BusinessesThere are several incredibly large black market businesses that advertise on TRiBot. These businesses consist of multiple employees, so you won't always be trading the same person when you make a trade. Generally speaking, these businesses can be trusted, because their reputation is worth more to them than your 20m sale.

However, it is important to remember that when you trade with one of these businesses, a lot of the time you will be trading with an employee. If you're dealing on Skype, make sure you ask which employee you are talking to.

Think About the Downside of the User Scamming YouIt's not uncommon for users to think "this is just a game, so it's not like I'm actually stealing anything". Scammers usually don't think of themselves as doing anything truly wrong. They think of it as just another way to make money with RuneScape.

What that means is that you cannot rely on a user's morals to prevent them from scamming. What else, besides what is listed above, is going to prevent a user from scamming you? Would getting banned hurt their business? How much time have they invested into TRiBot? If you can't think of any reason why a user wouldn't be negatively affected by scamming you, don't do business with them.

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

Getting scammed is something that everyone is afraid of when doing business using TRiBot's Black Market. There are scammers everywhere, and sometimes they are hard to avoid. Some people don't use the black market just because they are afraid of being scammed. However, I will illustrate below several ways to help ensure that you do not get scammed.

Only Trade Trustworthy MembersEven though this one seems obvious, many users still tend to ignore it. That great deal that someone with only 3 posts is offering is just too good to pass up. It is never worth the risk. If it's a small deal, then the money you save doesn't matter. If it's a larger deal, it isn't worth the risk that the deal falls through, and that you get scammed. Either way, only trade trusted members.

Use a Middle-ManUsing a middle-man is probably the best way to avoid getting scammed. You can visit the Middle-Man Forum if you wan to find a middle-man. Middle-Men have to go through an application process in order to be allowed to be a middle-man, so make sure that you only use a middle-man that you find on the middle-man forum.

Ask For a PMOnce you find a trusted member on TRiBot, you might continue the transaction on Skype or some other non-TRiBot form of communication. This is normal, and I have no reason to recommend against it. However, if you decide to do this, make sure that you ask for PM confirmation that you are talking to the person you think you are talking to. There are many impostors of commonly traded black market vendors on Skype and other forms of communication.

When asking for a PM, make sure you ask for them to copy/paste the Skype conversation you are having into the PM. When you get the PM, actually read the conversation. If the conversation isn't exactly the same, then the impostor may have requested a PM form the legitimate vendor pretending to be you!

Rename Your Skype ContactsIf you decide to continue your transaction through Skype, be sure that you immediately rename the contact of the person you are trying to contact. For example, I recently partook in a deal with @Crimson. This is how his Skype contact appears for me:

You should nickname your contacts something unique so you will always know if an impostor tries to trick you. Oftentimes an impostor will add you as a fake person, wait a week or 2, change their name to look like the person they are impersonating, and then message you again. It's very easy to spot if you nickname your contacts!

Be Suspicious if a Vendor "Gets a New Account"Whether it be a new TRiBot account, a new Skype account, or any other account, never accept needless change. Some companies will in fact change their Skype or TRiBot name legitimately to better suit their business, but when they do, they make a HUGE deal about it so customers know.

If anyone ever claims that something about their business has changed, make sure you visit their shop's thread for confirmation.

Avoid Using PayPal When You CanIt's very easy to chargeback a payment with PayPal. If it is possible, try to use Stripe, Google Wallet, or any other form of more secure payment. If the vendor is uneasy with that, or insists on using PayPal, don't trade with them; There is a large chance they are trying to scam you.